The circumference of the mega-city is defined by the amount of travel time acceptable to the daily commuter. Speed rail will connect major city hubs, yet leave vast amounts of space between urban centers, outside of the mega city equation. For this speculative ideas competition NON-STOP proposes a way to link medium and even small urban centers to the speed rail circuit without increasing travel time.

As the train approaches the tower it ejects the specially designed pods that, with the help of gravity, will quickly decelerate as it travels to the tower’s summit. At the peak, the departure pod transfers to a parallel track leading to a town center where passengers will disembark. In reverse action, arrival pods reach a calibrated velocity from tower descension and are absorbed into the speeding train. The tower’s electronic control and monitoring center is housed at the apex, as well as an observation deck that offsets operating costs.